Six Companies Detail 2028 Station Plans and 200-Plus Orbital Payloads at ISS Lab Session
Updated
Updated · Aerospace America · Jul 9
Six Companies Detail 2028 Station Plans and 200-Plus Orbital Payloads at ISS Lab Session
3 articles · Updated · Aerospace America · Jul 9
Summary
Six companies told an ISS National Laboratory session at ASCEND 2026 that the low Earth orbit economy is moving from concept to hardware, with commercial stations, research payloads and support infrastructure already taking shape.
Axiom Space said its first station module will berth to the ISS no earlier than 2028, then detach before the ISS deorbits to form the first habitable Axiom Station configuration with a second module.
More than 200 payloads flown since 2022 have helped Axiom build a biomanufacturing pipeline: tumor organoids grew two to three times faster in microgravity, and one investigational therapy has advanced to IND status and early clinical trials.
Vast Space said its Haven-1 platform will launch uncrewed in about a year, then support four 14-day crewed missions as a stepping stone to the nine-module Haven-2 station it is pitching for NASA's next LEO contracts.
More broadly, the session showed a commercial ISS successor market still under construction but increasingly backed by real customers, private capital and flight data rather than paper concepts.
As the ISS retirement clock ticks, can private industry truly prevent a U.S. gap in low Earth orbit?
Is in-space manufacturing a true economic revolution, or a bubble entirely dependent on taxpayer-funded contracts?
From ISS to Industry: The 2026–2032 Shift to Commercial Space Stations in Low Earth Orbit
Overview
As of July 2026, the global space community is preparing for a major transition in Low Earth Orbit. After more than 25 years as humanity’s outpost, the International Space Station is nearing retirement due to its aging hardware, much of which was built in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This shift is driven by the need for a sustainable and economically viable LEO ecosystem. NASA and its partners are now turning to commercial companies to provide new human spaceflight platforms, which can use the latest technology and support the future of research and industry in space.